The term "polyphenylene ether resin" includes a family of polymers well known to those skilled in the art, and they are made by a variety of catalytic and non-catalytic processes from the corresponding phenols or reactive derivatives thereof. By way of illustration, certain of the polyphenylene ethers are disclosed in Hay, U.S. Pat. No. 3,306,874 and 3,306,875, and in Stamatoff, 3,257,357 and 3,257,358. In the Hay patents, the polyphenylene ethers are prepared by an oxidative coupling reaction comprising passing an oxygen-containing gas through a reaction solution of a phenol and a metal-amine complex catalyst. Other disclosures relating to processes for preparing polyphenylene ethers are found in Fox, U.S. Pat. No. 3,356,761; Sumitomo, U.K. Pat. No. 1,291,609; Bussink et al, U.S. Pat. No. 3,337,499; Blanchard et al, 3,219,626; Laakso et al, 3,342,892; Borman, 3,344,166; Hori et al, 3,384,619; Faurote et al, 3,440,217; and disclosures relating to metal based catalysts which do not include amines, are known from patents such as Wieden et al, U.S. Pat. No. 3,442,885 (copper-amidines); Nakashio et al, U.S. Pat. No. 3,573,257 (Metal-alcoholate or -phenolate); Kobayashi et al, U.S. Pat. No. 3,455,880 (cobalt chelates); and the like. In the Stamatoff patents, the polyphenylene ethers are produced by reacting the corresponding phenolate ion with an initiator, such as peroxy acid salt, an acid peroxide, a hypohalite, and the like, in the presence of a complexing agent. Disclosures relating to non-catalytic processes, such as oxidation with lead dioxide, silver oxide, etc., are described in Price et al, U.S. Pat. No. 3,382,212. All of the above-mentioned disclosures are incorporated herein by reference.
Many polyphenylene ether molding compositions have been described in the prior art. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,660,351 discloses compositions which comprise polyphenylene ethers with either a block copolymer of styrene-butadiene or a block copolymer of styrene-butadiene-styrene. These compositions are reported to have impact strengths between about 3 ft.lbs./in. notch and 8.9 ft. lbs./in. notch. It has now been found that when a composition is formed from a polyphenylene ether resin, a particular type of a block copolymer of styrene-butadiene and a hydrogenated block copolymer of styrene-butadiene-styrene, ultra-high impact strengths will be obtained. These impact strengths may be in excess of 15 ft. lbs./in. notch depending on the particular composition and are higher than the impact strengths of the individual components.
Accordingly, it is a primary object of this invention to provide high impact polyphenylene ether molding compositions.
It is also an object of this invention to provide reinforced and flame-retardant high impact polyphenylene ether molding compositions.